A Court This Cruel and Lovely (Kingdom of Lies Book 1), page 35
She rolled her eyes. “If you’re hoping for some incredible offensive power, you can keep hoping. My power heightens my precision. I make incredibly neat stitches.”
Tibris nodded at that, while Demos continued to watch her. “Precision can mean many things. Let’s put a bow in your hand and see if you can let those arrows fly.”
She raised one eyebrow. “I tried learning to use a bow when Prisca did. I was almost as bad as her.”
“You were suppressing your power then, though, weren’t you?” Demos asked.
After a moment, she nodded.
“Worth a try,” I said. “As soon as you’re free, you need to begin training and see if that precision can be used to aim.”
She gave me a cool look, and I realized I was giving her orders. “Sorry.”
She just smiled. “It’s okay. You know, sometimes I barely recognize you.”
I winced, and she reached through the bars and grabbed my hand. “In a good way. Some people break under pressure like this. You’re using it to become strong.”
I thought of Lorian and all the ways he’d prodded me into doing exactly that. “I’m working on it.”
Tibris stepped out of Demos’s cage. “We’ve been down here for a while now. We should go.”
I nodded, and I squeezed Asinia’s hand. “Not long now.”
Glancing at Tibris, I gestured for him to follow me. He frowned but complied, and we walked toward the stone staircase. Hands on my hips, I examined it.
Tibris caught on immediately. “You think this is the tunnel entrance.”
I held up my lantern between us. “My source insists it is.”
He rolled his eyes at my source.
I scowled at him. “I’ve been down here every night, looking for this entrance. You can dislike Lorian as much as you want—and I can’t blame you for any of it—but he helped us with this, Tibris.”
“Fine. I guess I can thank him for that at least. I wouldn’t have thought to look here.”
“Me neither. He even told me how it works.”
“You’re not an idiot, Pris. He’s playing his own game here. If he gave you any information to help you, it’s because it benefits him somehow.”
“I know. I’ve spent more time with him than you have, after all. That doesn’t mean we can’t benefit from whatever he’s up to.” I circled the stairs and crouched in front of the second step from the bottom. The catch was tiny, created to look like just another crack in the stone. Shoving my finger into that crack, I pressed on the tiny metal latch.
Tibris pulled me off the stairs, and we both watched as a door slid open. Completely silent.
We glanced at each other and stepped into the tunnel.
As usual, I made my way to Lorian’s rooms after I left the dungeon. This time, I was feeling exultant. The tunnel had led us all the way out to the main market. Just days from now, every person in the dungeon would be free.
I wanted to thank him. I knew Tibris was right. But Lorian was still helping us save the hybrids’ lives.
My power came to me easily tonight, my mind on the mercenary. Lorian had the ability to both calm me and infuriate me. Either way, he was a distraction from the way my skin constantly felt too tight in this place, and I longed to run just to burn off some of the tension that consumed me.
The moment Lorian opened his door, it was evident he was in a filthy mood. He even seemed bigger somehow, like he was done hiding away and pretending to be the prince. It was a good thing no other courtiers were in this room right now.
I opened my mouth, but he was already speaking.
“Tell me where the amulet is.”
My heart stuttered at the threat in his eyes. Once Lorian had what he wanted, he would have no reason to work with us to get the prisoners out. And we needed all the help we could get. I forced myself to raise my eyebrow with a smirk. “I don’t think so.”
“I could make you tell me.” This time, I didn’t think he was talking about the pleasurable kind of torture. I gave him the look that threat deserved.
“And I could leave you frozen at any time,” I reminded him.
“For now.” He smiled, and I barely suppressed a shiver. It was a scary smile.
Lorian had just confirmed all my suspicions. He had power, but I’d never seen it. And somehow, that power was tied to the amulet he wanted me to find. If I gave him that amulet, he could abandon all of us to our fates.
“How do I know you won’t just kill everyone?”
“Oh, Prisca,” he purred. “I would never kill you.”
He was trying to unsettle me. Trying to ensure he had the upper hand in these negotiations. Unfortunately, it was working.
The blood pounded in my ears as we stared at each other. Finally, he sighed.
“We will make a blood vow.”
My mouth dropped open, and his gaze dropped to my lips. “You’ve been spending too much time with the fae.”
He gave a languid shrug. “They taught me a few things.”
I’d heard about fae blood vows. The rumors about them had made it even to our tiny villages. The cost of breaking a blood vow was…death. If I was wrong, and the amulet wasn’t where I thought it was, I would die screaming, begging for someone to end my suffering.
But if I was right…
I knew Lorian. If he agreed to get the prisoners to the city walls, that was what he would do. He and the rest of the mercenaries. If I died, it would be because I couldn’t find the amulet. That would mean Lorian wouldn’t have whatever dark power it would give him. I’d just have to warn Tibris and Vicer about the possibility, without letting them know about the death part. If I didn’t appear, they would know to make sure the prisoners fled.
It would mean my life for over three hundred others.
A good deal.
“You look uncertain, wildcat.”
“I’m not. We’ll make the blood vow.”
He studied me. “I will trust you to get the amulet.” A flash of what might have been surprise flickered over his face at his own words. “But if you betray me…” His voice turned colder than I’d ever heard it. “None of your prisoners will live unless you give me that amulet.”
I stared at him. Sometimes I’d forget who he was, until he reminded me.
He caught my chin in his hand. “Don’t look at me like that. Lives depend on me.”
“So you’d threaten over three hundred innocents?”
He leaned closer. “In. A. Heartbeat.”
“Well.” I swallowed. “I’m glad to know where we stand. From what I’ve heard, blood vows can’t be broken anyway.”
“They can’t. But you’re sneaky. Cunning. If anyone could betray me, it would be you.”
I didn’t know if I should feel satisfied or worried about that fact. Especially when it looked like Lorian was shaken by that little admission, and his expression had turned calculating.
“I agree. We’ll vow right now,” I blurted before he could change his mind.
Anyone with magic could complete a fae blood vow—as long as they’d learned the right steps and the correct incantation.
I swallowed. “You definitely know how to do this, right?”
Lorian just sighed. “Hold out your hand.”
In the end, it wasn’t as terrifying as I’d imagined. Lorian cut both of our palms, a thin slice that still stung and burned. He clasped our hands together, murmured a few words in a language I didn’t know, then told me to repeat those words.
“I’m not vowing to anything I don’t understand.”
He gave me a slow smile. “A good choice.”
I shivered. Would he have made me vow to something terrible?
“I could have made you my slave for the rest of your life,” he whispered in my ear. “And you would have liked it.”
I swallowed, my mouth bone-dry. “Switch to the common tongue.”
He did, and I analyzed every word as he laid out our bargain. He would take the prisoners to the city gates, along with Rythos, Cavis, Galon, and Marth. They would wait for me there, and when I handed over the amulet, our deal would be complete.
Lorian said several more strange words, and I cried out as pain erupted from my hand, spreading up my arm and into my chest. He slid his hand to the back of my neck, holding me in place. When I looked down again, both of our cuts had sealed, leaving nothing but a thin line behind.
I went to step back, but he easily held me in place. His gaze examined my face, and then he was lowering his head, his mouth finding mine.
I sighed against his lips, and he let out a growl, backing me toward the wall.
“I have no desire to watch you scream as you die,” he growled. “So you better be correct about where that amulet is.”
I didn’t want to think about that. Not now. All I wanted was for Lorian to make me forget. Just for a little while. I gazed up at him, and he cursed, his mouth capturing mine. Gods, he tasted good. Wild and a little feral and… I whimpered against his mouth, and he growled.
“You were designed to make me insane.”
He flipped our positions, and this time, he was pushing me through the sitting room, toward his bed. I stumbled, and then I was in his arms, my back hitting his soft bed.
“Dreamed of seeing you here,” he admitted, pressing a tender kiss to my lips. “Better than I could have imagined. Tell me you don’t want this, wildcat, but tell me now.”
I gazed up at him. He looked half crazed with lust. But beneath the lust was something else. Something we were both trying to pretend didn’t exist.
“I want this.”
“Then this needs to go.”
His hands found the clasp to my necklace, and he placed it on the bedside table.
Our eyes met—mine no longer hidden—and his mouth crashed down on mine. I slid my hand down his chest, unfastening his pants. Within a moment, I was stroking him, and he bucked into my hand. My stomach fluttered at the feel of him. “You’re…big.”
He just smiled against my lips. “You can take me.”
I squeezed him lightly, and he let out a rough groan, hauling me to my knees on the bed. He turned me, slowly unfastening each button, in between kisses to the back of my neck that made me want to beg him for more. He pulled down my dress, trapping my arms at my sides, and that hot, wicked mouth kissed up the side of my neck until he gently nipped at my earlobe. I gasped.
“I like you like this,” he purred. “Helpless against me.”
“I’m never helpless,” I reminded him, and he laughed.
“Oh wildcat, I plan to make you so insane with pleasure, you won’t even know where to find your magic.”
My skin prickled at the dark promise in his voice. He seemed to lose that control he valued so highly, and my dress was suddenly gone—victim to his clever hands. He let out a rough groan as he took in the scraps of lace I was wearing beneath it.
There was something incredibly arousing about hearing that groan. About knowing it was for me.
He flipped me, and his lips trailed down, across my breasts—distracting me while he did away with my underwear. And then I was bared for him, and he held my gaze as he ran one finger over the peak of my nipple.
“Do you like this?” He smiled at me. “Or this?” He roughly tweaked my other nipple, and I let out a choked moan.
“Ah,” he said. “A little pain with your pleasure?”
I shook my head, and he smiled. My breath caught in my throat, and I raised my hand, cupping his cheek. His smiles were so infrequent—and usually tinged with sarcasm. Or they were the feral kind of smiles that warned me something vicious and cutting would soon come out of that mouth. But this smile…
He smiled at me like I made him happy.
“What are you thinking?”
“Nothing.”
“Mm-hmm. Let’s see if I can really make that busy little mind blank.”
He lowered his head, taking one nipple in his mouth, sucking and rolling it until I was holding his head to me, writhing beneath him.
“So sensitive,” he murmured, moving to my other breast and giving it the same attention. My core clenched, desperate, needy in a way I’d never felt before.
“I want to touch you,” I demanded, pulling his shirt up.
He ripped off his shirt, and my mouth watered at the smooth expanse of skin. I let my hands wander, learning his body the way I’d fantasized about that day when I’d watched him bathe.
“These too.” I tugged at his waistband. He laughed against my breast.
“Demanding creature.” But he stripped them off, and my body heated further at the feel of his skin against mine.
I attempted to twine my legs around him, desperate to finally feel him inside me. He cursed as I rubbed myself against the thick length of him, too needy to feel even a hint of shame at the act.
“I don’t think so. I need to get you ready.”
“I’ve been ready.”
He ignored that, kissing his way down my belly. And if I’d thought the sight of his head between my thighs was erotic before, this was…
This was…
His naked back, his skin so warm against mine, the way he perused the heat of me as if I was his and he was deciding just how he’d best use me.
I gasped. He slowly lifted his head.
“I haven’t touched you yet, Prisca.”
“I need you.”
“I know.”
I would have scowled at his smug tone, except I could see the way he touched me with such careful restraint. The way he closed his eyes as his fingers found my slick core and he pushed my desire higher. And higher.
“Lorian.”
“Gods, when you beg. It’s the prettiest sound I’ve ever heard. Do it some more for me, and I’ll give you what you want.”
My cheeks blazed, but I met his gaze. He waited for me.
“There’s no shame between us,” he murmured. “Never. Now, tell me what you want.”
“I want you inside me.”
He smiled, flicking my clit with his finger. I clenched, and his smile widened. Then that same finger slid inside me. Gods, he made me want to beg.
“You want me here?”
“You know I do.”
“Then you’ll have me here. And you’ll know no other man can make you feel the way I do.”
He slowly kissed his way back up my body, until our lips met. I trembled as he positioned himself at my entrance, slowly thrusting inside me.
He got about halfway in, and I was suddenly too full. Maybe this was a bad idea.
“Uh, Lorian.”
He just raised his head. Those green eyes were so dark, they were almost black, his pupils blown. “Take me, Prisca.”
His hand slipped down to stroke me, and I opened for him, writhing at the dual sensation.
“That’s it, wildcat,” he murmured. And then he removed his hand, slowly thrusting once more. His pelvic bone hit my clit with each thrust, and I wrapped my legs around him, already on the edge.
Oh gods, the feel of him. It was better than I’d imagined in even my most secret fantasies—and yet, not enough. I needed more.
“Harder,” I demanded.
“Made for me,” he purred. But he complied, thrusting so deep I saw stars. There was pain, simply because he was so big and it had been so long…but the pleasure…
I had no words for the pleasure. For the way my body was already tightening around him. For the way my every nerve seemed to cry out for more. For the way my breath caught in my throat, and every muscle in my body clenched, on the verge of something incredible.
“Come for me, wildcat.” Lorian leaned down to nip at my bottom lip. “And let me feel it.”
I had no choice. My body was already tensing, my breath catching. He cursed as I clamped down around him. My climax roared through me, so strong, the edges of my vision darkened until all I could see was Lorian and the possessive lust in his eyes as he watched me fall apart for him.
When I was limp, he continued to move, his eyes still filled with that feral lust. “We’re not done.”
He might not be, but I certainly was.
He gave me a slow smile. Obviously, he knew exactly what I was thinking, because he pulled out of me and flipped me onto my knees, thrusting into me once more. He felt even larger in this position, and I clenched around him.
“So fucking beautiful,” he growled in my ear.
He wrapped one of his hands around my throat. Not squeezing, just a dark threat. His other hand had slipped down until he thrust in time with that hand as it caressed my clit.
And just like that, I was on the edge again.
“Come for me,” he ordered.
And I did. I let out a moan so filthy, he laughed. But it was a strained laugh. And then he was slamming into me, ensuring my climax went on and on, until he held me close and shuddered, emptying himself inside me.
I was strangely content, lying here in my enemy’s castle, as Prisca watched me with those eyes that were hers once more. I’d found myself missing their strange color, but the calculation in them, at least, was always the same—whether disguised or not.
Her gaze turned intent. “Why did you leave me that day? At the river?”
She’d never asked me that before.
I wasn’t a man who was used to feeling emotions like guilt or regret. And yet, when I thought of what could have happened to her, all alone by that river…
I quashed the urge to give her a glib answer. I was quiet for so long, she looked away. Finally, I sighed.
“I have been doing the kinds of tasks that would break many men for a very long time. When you live such a life, you eventually have to make a choice. Allow your deeds to stack up on your shoulders with every movement, crippling you with their weight, or turn that part of you—the part that cares about right and wrong and good and bad—off. When I first saw you, I didn’t see a person. I saw a problem I had no answer to. And then you looked at me, and I knew you’d survive.”
“How could you know that?”
“You forget—I’m older and wiser than you.” She rolled her eyes at that, and I couldn’t help but smile. “It wasn’t just fear and desperation in your eyes that day.”
